Tag: Misfits of Avalon

Page 59 – 63

I wanted to keep Morgan’s dreams a topic all through out the book so they aren’t forgot when book 3 rolls around.

I got a lot of siblings and we used to get into fights about who’s turn it was with the playstation so I figured with 9 kids the fight would get even worse. Also this is a good way to draw attention to Billy’s missing tooth. It’s a detail that could be easy to miss.

Page 64 – 69

So here’s Morgan and Billy’s sorta date. I wanted to build up their relationship in a way that wasn’t super romantic but you could understand Morgan fooling around with Billy later. Especially since she isn’t getting much attention or affection from anyone.

Morgan’s conversation with Billy, I wanted to make it clear how depressed she is. And as a teenager she knows shit is bad but doesn’t have the power to control or change it. It also vaguely mirrors the conversation Kimber and Elsie had. But this time the pessimist side is more grim rather than bored and the positive side is more proactive rather than content.

I wanted to imply Billy is getting dreams like Morgans but nicer.

I made sure Morgan smiles at the end of the talk though. So despite their disagreement she is enjoying her time with him. This time she lets him help her up.

Page 70 – 72

This kinda playful flirt rough housing was hard to draw. I needed to make it clear they weren’t actually hurting each other.

page 73 – 76

I love drawing Elsie being disgusted with people thinking her brother is hot.

Even though Morgan and Billy are starting to like each other I tried to keep them slightly apart whenever Elsie is around. Elsie always has shot gun in the car. That distance between them story wise will be important in the end. I wanted to subtly reinforce that visually.

So this quote is definitely because Rae is the type of person who always thinks she is right.

Page 41 – 42

I wanted to slowly build up to what eventually makes Rae crack. She gets really bothered by not being the smartest. She really gets tripped up by Morgan knowing something she doesn’t.

Page 43 – 49

Rae getting water from her ring is to show that she has played with/experimented with her powers more. This scene where she gets the ground wet is sorta a fine line between making it obvious to the reader what she is doing but not so obvious that someone is like “is Morgan blind for not noticing?”

I also wanted to make it clear that Morgan is having none of Rae’s shit and they don’t have any alone scenes until the end of the series because of this.

Rae is also literally looking down at Morgan this fight. I wanted to subtly reenforce Rae’s pov of view on the other girls with that staging.

Page 50 – 53

Rae seeing Morgan not take her word on the barrier was a big part of Rae staying away from Morgan the rest of the series. So her plan to team up with Morgan because of Morgan’s apathy backfires.

Page 54 – 58

Here I wanted to show Rae’s home life a little and that Morgan knowing something she doesn’t bothers Rae.

Briefly I thought about doing a flash back for each girl to show what they were like when they were younger. Rae’s was gonna be her and her dad getting money for his fake charity and showing that she learned it’s okay to screw people over if they are stupider than you from her dad. I ended up scratching all those scened because it was ultimately unnecessary.

I figured her just being cold to her mom for being dumb enough to believe their dad and then the explanation of where he is later would be enough.

I picked this quote for Kimber’s chapter because even though she is the youngest she is the most on the ball and seeing the bigger picture.

Page 21 – 23

Even though this chapter is from Kimber’s POV I hope that someone could make an educated guess about Rae’s motive behind her actions. First she is trying to ditch all of them and then partners up with the person who will  be the most disinterested in what she is doing.

I stuck to down shots for Kimber realizing Rae and her aren’t hanging out to push how disappointed she is.

Page 24 – 26

Elsie having to get her siblings before her and Kimber go investigate was to show another side of her. She’s helping out her family in-between shoplifting and ditching school. And this scene starts what is a lot of what this chapter is. Elsie and Kimber connecting and starting to get used to each other.

Page 27 – 29

So Kimber’s own self doubt and the way Morgan treated her, is why she reacts to Elsie question with anger. Then Elsie doesn’t reach to their shoving match with anger because that is business as usual for her.

I like how Elsie turned out in panel 2 of 29 where she is sitting in the sand.

Page 30 – 34

I liked drawing all their glowy ring while looking around. Also once the search begins both Kimber and Elsie buck up.

The rock continuing to hit Elsie in the head is a hint for how to resolve stuff.

Page 35 – 40

During the fight I liked to pull out when they were yelling and when they were quiet. Cause I wanted the distance between them to be pushed.

Elsie’s reaching out to Kimber with the hair dye starts out sounding insulting so Kimber who is thinking the worst will react defensively. But she wins her over with pissing off parents proposal.

Okay so on to book 2. All the book 2 chapter titles are quotes from the Once and Future King. I read that for research while working on Misfits of Avalon and really enjoyed it. I thought this quote described Morgan pretty well.

Page 1 – 3

So I wanted to return to Morgan’s dream to reenforce that she is more connected to what is going on. Like the last book her dream is a hint at what will happen later. Also these dreams are making this whole mission is wearing on her more than the other girls.

Page 4 – 7

Morgan’s walk in the middle of night, I wanted to show a quiet moment of reflection. Also she is getting drawn to the tree and didn’t intend to walk there. I didn’t know if that was clear during her walk. I hoped that her slowly going to touch it might have shown that.

In this whole bit with Cu I tried to position him above Morgan. So while he is warning her, he is coming off as vaguely threatening. Then once he doesn’t know what is going on with Morgan’s dreams as much as she does, they are on equal footing.

Page 8 – 13

Morgan finding Billy is to mostly give them some alone time and give them a connection that builds in the rest of the book. There are small things in this scene that change as they are repeated later. Like Morgan doesn’t let Billy help her up. Her kicking him to wake him up I felt was very Morgan. I also wanted to give a bit more info about both their family lives.

This scene I also wanted to show something more mystical is going on with both of them. They are both drawn to the tree.

I always try to play with background details when I got time. To show how much time as past since Morgan woke up, made sure to show the coffee shop opening up and some early morning deliveries. So it’s still early but the rest of the world is starting to wake up.

The end of this scene is the first time Morgan smiles when she’s not being mean.

Page 14 – 18

This whole scene I put little lines under Morgan’s eyes to show she is tired. I had to be careful with them cause if they are too prominent she’ll look older.

Elsie being continues to try and be Morgan’s friend by being loud. But she is also including Morgan in her gang. Their dialogue is supposed to give you an idea of what they talk about all the time and how Morgan has no patiences for it even when they aren’t antagonizing her. So even as Elsie is trying to include her Morgan is still isolated. She never engages or responses to Amanda and Lin.

Page 19 – 20

Since we’ve already seen Morgan’s dream I made an abridged version. But also I wanted to show how they happen almost immediately. So Morgan is not getting like any sleep.

Page 119 – 120

These two pages are because I wanted to ease someone into Rae’s thoughts. So to start I just have her focused and competent. Her asking the lady for directions are also to establish she is good at lying, but in a small way at first.

Page 121 – 122

These fighting pages are to show how the monsters were getting made. Since Rae is more on the ball she gets there before stuff gets too bad and we get to see that “Arthur’s” blood is the key to everything.

Page 124 – 127

Here we get full force Rae when dealing with the other girls. Sometimes the captions are a little cramped because Rae thinks more than the other girls and I didn’t want to drag this scene out two much. I did have fun with the acting between Elsie and Morgan as that fight, particularly when Elsie flicks some of her float at Morgan.

While writing Rae’s thoughts I made things colder and more calculated than when Kimber was mad at Morgan and Elsie.

Page 128 – 134

So this is the first really big exposition scene. I wanted to set it up a lot of the questions the girls don’t get answered until the end. Also, I wanted to keep pushing that Elsie, while having the simplest motive, its also the one with the clearest right and wrong.

Kimber’s crush on Rae is subtle through the first book but I also wanted to keep it childish to show her being younger than the rest. So I thought the beat of her wanted to sit next to Rae would be a good beat. Rae’s look at Kimber I thought would be a good hint that Rae is picking up on Kimber’s enthusiasms for the two of them being close.

Cu and Rae are are the two big liars. So I had fun writing Rae trying to trip him up without showing too much of her hand.

Rae completely ignoring the fighting to focus on her own goals is another ways to contrast her from the group and to show she is much colder and detached than the others. But that she is also very focused on her goals and isn’t paying attention to their personal details.

Page 135

I really liked this bit about with Elsie thinking Billy is buying drugs. I wanted them to tease each other but still have it be clear they liked each other.

Page 136 – 140

Once again, Rae is basically ignoring everything the other girls are saying. I made Elsie one of nine and figure it is probably hard for her or any of her siblings to have any kind of private time never mind romance

This whole scene is to show Rae is good at being manipulative and is also away of how she is appearing at all times. She mostly dresses the way she does for situations like this. Because of that she is the only one who can safely talk to a cop.

Page 141 – 142

I think drawing and making firing for fire is one of my favorite things art related. Also I really like the Dimiter Martin joke about indifferent graffiti. So when ever I have a place with stuff written on it I have at least one indifferent graffiti. So “SU 151 is okay.

Page 143 – 148

This whole fight is when they start really communicating. They have a few problems similar to the ones before and that is basically the first half of the fight. It’s a lot of them bumping into each other and them hurting each other’s chances against Arthur. I especially liked that Rae ruins Kimber’s attack twice. So while Kimber, Elsie, and Morgan actively fight a lot, Rae isn’t much better at being in sync with her teammates.

Page 149 – 154

Things start to go better after Arthur’s big attack that knocks everyone down. Elsie and Morgan stop rocks from falling on each other. I tried to use skinny tall panels because those two are still in a cramped space.

Morgan recognizes the alter from her dream which is why she figures out that’s what needs to go. I didn’t want that to be 100% obvious though.

I like big flashy pages of Elsie wrecking shit.

Page 155- 158

As the girls escape I again wanted to push that Elsie is the one that thinks about other people. She is concerned about Arthur even before finding out who he is. Rae on the other hand only cares about number 1.

I wanted to wrap the book of with some quick character beats to reenforce who each girl is before the book ends. So we get some bickering, Rae smoothly lying, and Kimber’s getting excited about Rae agreeing with her. Then Billy coming back with bruises is to make it clear he is Arthur. I didn’t want “Who is King Arthur” to be a big mystery, more “When will the girls realize Billy is King Arthur” Also, Billy is the obvious choice to be Arthur because Arthur was Morgan La Fey’s half -brother. I always wanted Arthur to have that same connection.

I liked ending on the beat of Elsie not hiding their superheroing at all.